On Darker Tides
by Dalek Prime
Summary: AU. Theresa Fowler finds herself in a whole new world after being shanghaied by a band of pirates lead by the mysterious Randy 'The Red' Cunningham. Now aboard their ship The Tengu, Theresa faces dangers from both the sea and the crew around her, all the while finding herself becoming attracted to the young captain. Randy/Theresa.
1. Kidnapped

A/N: I Don't Own Randy Cunningham: 9th grade ninja

* * *

Chapter One: Kidnapped

* * *

Things could be going better for Theresa right now.

It started as a normal day at sea for her; she was only a day away from seeing her farther again at Port Royal, however her dreams of being reunited with her single parent where dashed when the ship that was escorting her spotted another ship heading toward them from the southwest at an alarming rate. The ship was a Man-O-War class that was made from black wood with blood red sails and a black flag with a symbol of a large red bird on it and while she had not seen the ship until now she had heard stories from the sailors about it during her trip: It was dreaded pirate ship known as The Tengu.

The Tengu was said to be home to a crew of the most evil group of pirates to have ever sailed the seas who showed no mercy to any unlucky vessel they set their unholy sights on and their captain was so wicked that the devil himself refused him to ever let him set foot in hell and cursed him to forever sail upon oceans blue tides.

Before Theresa knew it, the captain of her ship took her by the hand and rushed her into his quarters for safety as he and his men prepared for battle against the oncoming threat. The teenagers quickly hide herself in his wardrobe closet and prayed that the brave men that her farther had charged to protect her could fight off this band of cut-throats and continue on their path to Port Royal. Even within the closet, she could hear the sounds of cannon fire, the crack of muskets and the screams of men dying as swords pieced their hearts. After a few minutes of fighting, the sounds of battle had died down, making Theresa believe that the pirates had been defeated.

Suddenly, the doors to the closet where flung open and two pair of hands reached out and grabbed her, threw a black sack over her head and dragged out off of the ship before she had anytime to so much as call out for help (not that she'd probably get any). Now she was here-wherever here was, however judging from the voices she could hear around her, she was differently not among friends. She still had the sack over her head and was now on her knees, listening helplessly to all the cruel things they intended on doing with her.

"I say we make her walk the plank" one voice spoke up with a demented giggled

"That's what you say we do with every prisoner we take Julian!" a female voice scolded

"I say we keep the dress and use the girl for shark bait" another female voice said in a cooler tone

"Maybe we could hold her for ransom, she gotta be worth someone?" another male voice suggested "If nothing else, we can always sell her off as a whore in Tortuga"

"That's not a bad idea Howard" the first female voice complimented "But we better wait for the captain's word on what to do with her before we go off selling bed-wrenches to brothels"

"I am not a whore!" Theresa shouted in defiance through the sack

The crew fell silent when they heard their captive shouted at them. Theresa had no idea what made her speak out in front of her captors, but now it was out there and she couldn't take it back. Just then, one of the crewmen roughly yanked the sack off of her head to allow her see the men and women who had stolen her away and much to her shock, she found herself surrounded by pirates who where no older then she was.

"You best keep that pretty little mouth shut lass or I'll sow it shut!" the first girl warned darkly

"I-I'm s-sorry!" Theresa apologized in a panicked voice "Please d-don't hurt me!"

"I said shut up!" the red-head shouted in her face as she drew a knife from her pocket

"That's enough!" a new voiced commanded in a firm tone

The crew and Theresa looked upward toward the command deck to see a boy around the prisoner's age standing there. The boy was dressed in a red jacket with a black cape with crimson trim over it and a red hat with a black feather in it sat atop his head. He wore a pair of black boots with brown buckles on them and black pants. His left cheek had a scar on it and an eye-patch covered the hole where his right eye used to be. The teen had two pistols strapped to his sides as well as a cutlass with an ivory handle he kept tucked in his belt and finally he had raven sitting on his shoulder with beady red eyes that seemed to cut into the purple haired girl's very soul. Theresa didn't need to be told that this was The Tengu's infamous Captain Randy 'The Red' Cunningham.

The captain silently made his way down to where the rest of his crew where, making them all quickly move out of his way without making so much as eye-contact with them as he did. He walked up to the red-haired girl and held out his hand, making her wordlessly give up her knife and walk back into the crowd of villains, all the while having a look of shame on her face. The leader of the rouges then put the knife away in his jacket before kneeling down to Theresa's level and looked her dead in the eye with a harden gaze. Even though being face-to-face with arguably the most dangerous pirate since Blackbeard, a part of the young girl's mind couldn't help but admit that this boy was rather handsome despite the injuries he had sustained in his line of work, but her fear over shadowed her inner romantic.

"What's your name?" he asked a cold voice as his raven inspected her intently

"T-Theresa" she stuttered out in almost a terrified whisper "Theresa Fowler"

The captain raised an eyebrow in interest of her name while his crew suddenly began to break out in a flood of angry whispers as their eyes locked dead on the girl; they knew exactly who she was now. The captain raised his hand up, signaling for his crew to be silent, to which they did in an instant.

"Fowler eh?" he continued in a more causal tone "Your farther wouldn't happened to be Admiral John Fowler now would he?"

"Y-yes…" she answered in a defeated voice, knowing that this was probably the end for her

"I say she shoot her dead right here and now!" a short portly red-haired boy declared, making some of they other crewman cheer in agreement

"I'll decided what we do with her Howard, not you!" his leader sharply informed the hefty boy as his single eye glared daggers at him, making the heavyset boy quickly shut up

The young captain then turned his attention back to his prisoner. At this point Theresa was absolutely sure that the boy was going to whip out his pistol and blow her brains out right then and there, but instead he merely stood back up and did the last thing she thought he would do: hold out his hand to her.

"Well don't just sit there, come on, stand up" he told her in a slightly softer tone

With a tentative hand, she slowly reached out and carefully took hold of his hand. The young captain then pulled her up to her feet to allow her to stand up and face the crew, who where just as shocked as she was by their leader's actions.

"Boys, this here is our new shipmate" he announced to the other teens

"What?!" everyone including Theresa exclaimed in disbelief

"Miss Fowler here going to make a fine addition to our crew" he continued further "I want you to treat her as if she was one of us"

"You can't be serious captain!" the red haired girl spat in distaste "She's the daughter of-"

"I know who her farther is Heidi!" her leader cut her off "But that doesn't matter here, we are all equal on this ship"

He then turned to a young blond haired among the crowd of pirates and wordlessly made him come up to him with a gesture.

"This here is our cabin boy Bucky Miss Fowler" he introduced to their captive "He's going to show you the ins and outs of our daily lives. Bucky, be a good lad and show the young lady to her room will you?"

"Aye, aye captain!" the cabin boy happily replied with a salute before leading Theresa to the crew quarters

As the young girl was being lead away, she glanced back and watched the captain head back to his quarters. To her surprise, she saw a the door to his room open without him so much as touching it and close by itself once he entered. Theresa wanted to ask how that was possible, but she thought it best if she stayed quit for now.

* * *

"Well, here's your room" the cabin boy said to his new shipmate

The room in question was nothing more then a hammock made of old sheets that was tied to two posts along side several other hammocks that where the crews 'rooms'. For a good part of her life Theresa had slept in a large bed and private room back in her home in the English countryside, now in a blink of an eye she had been reduced to a shanghaied crewman.

"Oh I almost forgot" Bucky mentioned before he handed her some raggedy cloths "These will be your new cloths, that dress your wearing is only going to get in the way of your work"

"Work?" Theresa asked, clearly surprised by that word

"Well your apart of our crew now, that mean's you gotta take up some reasonability to keep everything sailing smoothly" he told her before chuckling lightly "heh-heh, pirate ship zing"

With that, he began to walk away, but he turned around one last time to say a last bit of information.

"As you may have guessed already, you farther isn't to popular among the crew" he began in a serious tone "So I suggest you watch your back or someone might put a knife in it"

After saying that, Bucky left the new crewmen to get herself situated. Once he was gone, Theresa climbed into her new bed and wept softly, wishing that this was all some sort of bad dream and that she was really in her bed with her farther watching over her as he always did.

* * *

Later that night in the captain's quarters, Randy was sitting sideways in a large wooden chair at his desk reading a map while his pet bird was perched at the top of the chair with only a few lanterns serving as the light in the room. His cape, jacket and hat where currently off his person and hanging on his coat rack in the corner of the room, leavening him in his bright red shirt-tailed vest with gold trim on it and pants and boots. As he quietly read to himself, he heard a furious banging on his door.

"Come in" he said in a calm voice

No sooner when he say that did his first mate Howard come barging into his room with a vexed look on his face. Along side the heavyset boy was his older sibling Heidi, who also hade an enraged look in her eyes.

"What are you up to?" his first mate demanded

"I'm up to a lot of things, your going to have to be specific" Randy answered, not looking away from his map

"Why do you really want that girl in our crew?" Heidi asked sharply, wanting to cut to the chase

"Heidi and I have been with you from the start, so you can at least tell us what your game is" her sibling continued "You damn well know that her farther is going to send the entire damn navy after us!"

The young captain looked away from his map and locked his eye on the older girl. He put the piece of paper down on his desk and stood up from his seat to face his two crewmen.

"If you really must know, she's bait" he told them "I want her farther to send his fleets after us, because I know exactly who he'll send to fetch his daughter first"

The brother and sister knew what he meant by that, he was hoping that the admiral would send the man who took the captain's eye among other things.

"So this is some grand revenge scheme then?" Heidi argued "You're willing to risk all our lives just to have a final show down with him again?

"I'm not the only one aboard this ship who holds a grudge against that bastard!" he shot back as he slammed his fist on the table, making the two teens jump "Or need I remind you what he's taken from you and your brother as well?"

"Look captain…Randy…" Howard spoke up again "Everyone on this ship is willing to follow you to the gates of hell, but please think about what you're doing first"

"Don't worry Howard, I always have the crew's best intentions first and foremost in mind" his captain assured

"What about the girl?" Heidi inquired "What do we do about her?"

"Like I said before, she's part of the crew now" the young pirate answered "Our issues are with her farther and his lapdog, not with her"

The captain the walked up to the siblings and narrowed his eye at them before speaking again.

"And I suggest you to remember that as well" he warned them "Now then, you are dismissed"

The two teens left upon given the order, once again leaving Randy alone his quarters with only his raven as the only company he had.

"It's been quite a day, hasn't it?" he asked his pet, who cawed in response "I think you're right, we should get some sleep"

And with a snap of his fingers, every lantern in his room was snuffed out.


	2. The First Day At Sea

Chapter Two: The First Day At Sea

* * *

A cold splash of water was what awoke Theresa from her sleep; she looked to see none other the Bucky standing over her bedside with a now empty bucket in his hands. She had only been on this wicked ship for only a night and already she hated being here, she could only imagine the suffering she would endure during her stay among this crew of rouges.

"Rise and shine Theresa" he said with a joyful smile "Today is your first day of being part of our family"

"_More like being part of a madhouse_" Theresa grimly thought to herself

"I see you haven't changed into your new cloths yet" the cabin boy pointed out "You might wanna do that now before you get to work"

The admiral's daughter knew she couldn't talk her way out of not wearing the new clothing she was given, so she decided to just stick it out for now and change into new attire, besides it would be nice to get that rather tight corset she had on under her dress off of her person.

"Um, is there somewhere I can change in private?" she inquired

"Not really, no" Bucky answered "But don't worry, I'll leave you alone so you can get dressed in peace. Meet me on deck when you're ready"

"Shouldn't I take a bath first?" Theresa asked

"You already took it" the cabin boy said, referring to her wake up call a few moments ago

Having said that, the blonde haired pirate left the new recruit alone to change into her new uniform. The young girl quickly got changed into her new outfit, which was a white shirt and shoes with a dusty old purple jacket over it and a pair of brown shoes that had been clearly seen better days. She looked over to her purple dress and started to think about of all the horrid things the band of cut-throats would do with it and without giving it a second thought, she tossed it out of a nearby porthole. After doing away with her dress, she made her way out to the deck where Bucky was waiting for her.

"So Theresa, what kind of skills do you have?" he asked

"Well to be honest, I don't really have many skills to begin with" the captive girl replied truthfully "I've had servants take care of me all my life, but I do know how to sow and I've had some fencing training-if that helps at all"

"I would've put you to work as the ship's tailor, but Morgan already has that job filled" the blonde haired boy said

"Who's Morgan?" Theresa questioned

Just as the boy was about to answer, an arrow came sailing in between the two teens before striking the black wooden wall of the ship. The pair looked over to where the arrow was fired from to see a slightly older girl with reddish-brown hair that was tied back into a ponytail with a hunting bow in her hand and a pack full of arrows on her back walking toward their direction. The girl was dressed in a blue tank-top and a black dress that hung around her waste with brown sandals on feet.

"That would be her" Bucky said

The older girl silently walked in-between the two younger pirates and pulled her arrow out of the ship before putting back in her pack. She turned to look back at Bucky and Theresa with a gaze that was cold as steel that made them both cower before her.

"I wasn't aiming at you" she told them in a stoic tone before walking away

"Then what where you aiming at?" Theresa asked

The older pirate showed them both a small fly that was impaled on the very tip of the arrowhead before putting it away. She gave Theresa an icy glare before walking away, leaving the younger girl feeling a sense of dread.

"Morgan doesn't like using muskets or pistols, she prefers using arrows, but she's the best damn shot on this ship-maybe even the whole world" Bucky explained "She was trained by her mother who was a Seminole Indian how to use them before her farther who was a Spanish sailor took her away with him"

"How did she get here?" Theresa wondered out loud

"We all have our stories of we found our way to The Tengu, but we like to keep them to ourselves" the cabin boy said before getting back on track "Now let's see, what can we have you do…Ah-Ha! I know!"

Before Theresa knew it, Bucky had put a mop and bucket in her hands.

"Well don't just stand there, that deck isn't gonna clean itself!" the boy commanded "Chop, chop missy!"

So much to her chagrin, the admiral's daughter had become nothing more then a cleaning maid. While she did that, she watched as Bucky went off to the lower decks, more then likely to carry out his own chores for the day and leaving her alone to be surrounded by a good number of people who would love nothing more then to disembowel her with a smile on their face. As she swabbed the deck, she kept her eyes on the ship's crew that were currently on deck at the time, who either gave her a quick nasty look or paid her no mind at all and went about their business. It wasn't to long before Theresa's line of sight eventually found its way to the captain, who was currently steering his vessel across the sea.

She watched as the wind blew his cape off to the side, making it gracefully dance across the oceans breeze while he keep his single eye locked on the vast waters before him, almost never blinking at all. His raven was perched on his shoulder, ever moving an inch as it sat there. The morning sun cast a shadow around his person that made him both terrifying and magnificent to gaze upon, Theresa was so enamored by the young captain that she was wasn't paying attention to what was in front of her and crashed right into the portly boy she had encountered yesterday.

"Watch it you idiot!" the pirate known as Howard snapped

"I-I'm sorry!" Theresa squeaked out

"Not yet your not" he growled before reaching for something in his vest

"Ahem…" the captain's said sharply from where he was "Shouldn't you be peeling potatoes right now Howard?"

The heavyset boy grumbled a few nasty words as he pulled his hand out of his vest and walked away from the girl.

"Thank you captain" she said as she bowed her head

The boy gave said nothing and continued on with looking out to the sea, but the girl had a sense that in a strange way it was his way of saying your welcome. Theresa made a mental note to stay in the young leader's line of sight as she continued to scrub the deck or else she may fall prey to one of the crewmen's wrath. It was at that time that Bucky had returned however this time he had a young girl with glasses on at his side. The girl had a flute that was strapped to her belt on one side and a pistol strapped to the other side.

"Ah there you are Theresa; right where I left you" he said before introducing the other girl "This is Flute Girl"

"Nice to meet you" Theresa greeted nicely, though not knowing if she would get a warm reception

"Same here" flute girl answered in a sweet tone

"Flute Girl's gonna be helping you on kitchen duty tonight" the cabin boy explained "I figured I'd introduce you two first"

"I might not be able to help, I don't know how to cook" the purple-haired girl admitted

"No worries, Flute Girl is our resident chief, you just need to be her extra hands" Bucky informed her "speaking of which you two better get started, it's almost time for lunch"

The admiral's daughter nodded acknowledgement before following the other girl down to the lower decks, however she failed to see the silent look between the cabin boy and the cook had between one another before descending down to the ship's lower levels.

* * *

As Theresa followed Flute Girl down into the lower decks, she suddenly a sense of fear creep her spine, as if her body was trying to warn her of some impending danger. Flute Girl made it done the steps first, who looked back up at Theresa who was suddenly frozen where she stood on the steps.

"Well come on, don't be shy" Flute Girl urged with a warm smile

Theresa smiled back, feeling as though her fears where simply holding her and began walk done the rest of the steps. Just as the admiral's daughter stepped off of the final step, a fist slammed into her left cheek, knocking her to the floor from the force of the impact. She looked up to see her attack was none other the Heidi who was alongside a few other crew members such as her brother, the boy with the big purple tog hat and young Asian girl, all of whom had a look of malice in their eyes. Standing among the group was Flute Girl, who looked down at her with such disdain.

"W-why are you doing this?" she choked out

"Your farther took my parents away from me" Flute Girl hissed "Think of this as payback"

"Enough talk, you know what to do" Heidi commanded "don't leave any bruises on her face or anywhere else the captain could see them"

Before she could even scream, Heidi stuffed a rag into the poor girl's mouth to prevent her from crying out for help. For the next eight agonizing minutes, Theresa was brutality beaten by the very people she was being forced to work with. Once they were finished with the purple-haired girl, they left her in beaten a bruised heap on the floor, walking away in a fit a laughter as they did. Once they where gone, Theresa's blurred vision came upon Bucky, who was currently looking down at her with pity for her on his face.

"Your living on a ship of wolves Theresa" he told in somber tone as he pulled the rag out of her mouth "You can either die a lamb or become a wolf and live"

After saying that, he walked away just as Theresa's vision blacked out from the amount of pain she was in.

* * *

John Fowler crumpled up the message he was just given before tossing it into the fire. The said message was given to him only minutes ago by one of his servants which informed him that the ship that was escorting his only child aboard was sunk to the oceans depths by the pirate ship The Tengu and her crew and while there had been no survivors after the attack, his daughter's body was never recovered among the dead.

"I'm so sorry sir, Theresa was such a wonderful young lady" his butler said sadly "it is a tragedy that this happened to her"

"I refuse to believe that my child is dead!" the admiral snapped in rage "Those savages must have taken her hostage for ransom!"

"But sir if that is true, you could not send help for her at this time" his servant reasoned "The fleet is already battling both the French and the Spanish for control over the island and who could possibly stand against The Tengu and those band of monsters?"

John Fowler knew of one man in his fleet that not only had experience with the Tengu's crew, but also its evil captain as well. Someone who clashed blades with the mysterious Randy 'The Red' Cunningham and made him turn tail and run away in past battles. If there was anyone in the world who had any chance of saving his daughter, it would be him.

"Get me Commodore Mcfist" the admiral ordered


	3. From Lamb to Wolf

Chapter Three: From Lamb to Wolf

* * *

The next day Theresa did her best look strong among the rest of crew as she swabbed the deck despite the horrible amount of pain she was still in from the beating she took yesterday, but sadly though she wasn't fooling anyone aboard the ship. As she cleaned the deck, she could hear the crewmen occasionally mention her name in a low voiced conversations as well see Heidi and the other crew members who took part in her beating look over in her direction and give her a wicked smirk before going about their business.

She was angry—not just at them, but also herself. She let herself foolishly believe for one split second that had friends in this den of monsters, a major blunder on her part. As she wallowed in her self-pity, a surge of pain coursed through her body, making her nearly collapse onto the wooden deck. As she tried to fight through the agony within her body, Bucky walked up to her with some more cleaning supplies.

"Captain wants you to you to clean the crew's quarters" he informed her he handed her the supplies "You better get going, he's in a bit of a sour mood today and you do not wanna get on his bad side"

"Like I have with everyone else" Theresa said under breathe as she walked past the cabin boy

As she headed toward the crew's quarters, Heidi causally stuck her foot out in the path of admiral's daughter, causing the poor girl to fall forward and spill all the cleaning suppliers all over herself. Theresa looked up at her tormentor with hatred in her eyes while the red-head looked back down at her with satisfaction in hers, knowing she had all the power in this situation.

"Do something" she mocked the younger girl "I _dare_ you"

Some of the other crewmen gathered around to see if a fight would break out between them, however Theresa got back to her feet and gathered up her things and walked away, much to the displeasure of the pirates who wanted to see a brawl. As much as she'd loved to beat that smirk off the older girl's face, Theresa knew she was no match for the female pirate in a fist fight.

"That's what I thought" Heidi hissed before going about her business

* * *

Instead of cleaning the crew's quarters, she instead fell in a saddened slump unto one of beds and began to once again weep at her current situation; however her weeping was interrupted when she heard the sound of someone walking into the crew's quarters. Theresa quickly dried her eyes and leapt to her feet and began to franticly clean the floor in fear of another beating.

"Keeping everything in order I see?" a familiar voice asked coolly

Theresa let out an 'eep!' in fright as she instantly recognized the voice. She slowly turned around to see none other then the captain of The Tengu himself standing there; grinning at her while stroking the feathers of his pet bird as it perched itself on one of his fingers.

"I'm so sorry sir!" she cried out in terror as she fell to her knees before him "Please don't kill me! I swear I'll-"

"Pull yourself together Fowler; I was just giving you a bloody compliment" he said jokingly before quickly getting serious "Is something wrong?"

"Of course not!" she answered a bit to quickly "I-I'm just a bit jumpy-that's all!"

"I see…" was all the captain said in response as he carefully inspected her with his eye "Can you do me a favor Theresa?"

"Yes sir, what is it?" the admiral's daughter asked, hesitation in her voice

"Pull your shirt up" he said firmly

"W-What?!" the shanghaied girl answered, completely taken aback by what he had said

"You heard me, pull up your shirt" the boy now commanded as his pet bird left his hand and flew up to the rafters above them "That's an order"

"I'll do no such thing!" she protested, now backing away from him

Suddenly, Randy lunged at the poor girl and before she knew it, he had pinned her against a support beam with her back facing him. She was too scared to scream and besides who would come to her aid here in this den of thieves? It also inwardly pained the girl that her illusion that the captain was possibly a good person, but she should've known better then to believe that. As he lifted her shirt out, she shut her eyes and waited for him to start having his way with her with sorrow and dread in her heart, but after several hellish second of waiting, nothing happened. Confused by this, she opened her eyes and turned her around to see Randy looking over the bruises she had received yesterday in her surprise beating with a look of contempt on his face. After a few seconds more of looking the bruises over, he pulled her shirt down and released his hold on her.

"Who did this?" Randy questioned sharply

"I-I can't say" Theresa stuttered out

"Who!" the young captain snapped, making the girl jump

"It was Bucky, Flute Girl, Heidi and a few others" Theresa admitted sadly, with her head hanging low "Flute Girl said she getting revenge for my farther killing her parents, I don't know why everyone else did it"

"Why didn't you tell me?" the pirate inquired

"Because I was afraid they'd beat me again" the admiral's daughter explained, now with little tears falling from her eyes

The captain didn't respond, instead he merely let out an angry sigh at the actions of his crew. He had made them swear not to hurt the girl and yet they went right behind his back, however he had a pretty good idea as to why most of them had really attacked her, but others such as Heidi and Flute Girl had a bit more malice to their actions; which was something he was not going to abide by on his ship, however on the other hand, if he intervened in this situation, he would make it look like he was playing favorites with the newest member of crew by defending Theresa.

"What are you going to do?" Theresa finally spoke up

"I'm not going to do anything" he replied "You are"

"What?!" the young girl spat out in fright "But they'll kill me! Please captain, you have to make them stop!"

"I can't tell them that" he began to explain "Because your right, they'll beat you again if I do anything to stop them. The only way you'll get them to stop is to confront them yourself, if you at least put up a fight against Heidi, the rest will get the message"

"But I've never fought anyone in my life!" Theresa shot back in a panic "And you want me to just walk right up Heidi and punch her in the face?!"

"Bluntly speaking: yes" Randy answered "You're living on a ship full of wolves, you can either die a lamb or become one yourself and run with the rest of the pack"

"Bucky said the same thing…" Theresa mentioned sadly "There really isn't any other way to go about this, is there?"

"I'm afraid not" the captain said "But don't worry, I'll make sure it's a fair fight"

There was something in the way he had said those words made the captive girl feel almost at ease about what she had to do. The young captain gave her a warm reassuring smile to try to help calm her nerves and while it did that, she couldn't help but smile back at the boy who she had heard nothing but horrific stories of murder and mayhem about. Here was one of the most infamous pirates on the seven seas who was right up there with the likes of Jack Sparrow and Edward Kenway in terms of said infamy and he was smiling at her as if she was a friend of his.

"You know what to do Theresa" Randy finished before left the room, his bird following after him as he walked out the room

He was right about that, there was no way around it; if Theresa wanted to survive, she had to fight.

* * *

Later that night, the crew had gathered in the ship's mess hall for tonight's dinner, which was potatoes, stale bread and grague to drink. To anyone else, this would look like food barely fit for even the poor, but to this crew of cutthroats it was meal fit for a king. As the crew was having their dinner, Theresa walked into the mess hall with scowl on her face that got the attention of most of the crewman as she made her way to where Heidi was eating. Without even so much as a single word, the purple-haired girl knocked her enemy's plate of food to the floor in order to get her attention, needless to say it did. The crew silently waited in anticipation for a fight they had been waiting all day to happen, wondering what would happen next. Heidi stood up and faced off with the admiral's daughter.

"You got a death wish girl?" Heidi asked darkly

Theresa's response came in the form of her fist colliding with Heidi's jaw, knocking the older girl to the floor with the blow. Before she could retaliate, the younger girl jumped on top of her tormentor and began to pummel her in an all-out frenzy. Some of the other crew attempted to pull the captive girl off of Heidi, but a powerful voice prevented them taking any action.

"This is between them; no one else steps in until it's over!" the voice commanded

The crew turned to see captain Cunnigham standing in the doorway to the mess hall with a fierce look on his face, making his crew quickly back down from giving Heidi any help. They watched as Theresa continued to bring his fists down on older girl's face over and over again until suddenly the pirate captain walked over and grabbed Theresa by the wrist.

"I think you won" he informed her as he helped her up

Coming down from the high of her anger, Theresa saw in shock the damage she had done to Heidi's face in her enrage state of mind. Heidi weakly climbed back up to her feet and wordlessly stumbled out of the mess hall, a few of the crew members and even her brother attempted to help her, only for her to give them a death glare to get them to back off. Once she had left, the crew of The Tengu let out a cheer and began to walk over to Theresa and begin to compliment.

"It's about time you figured it out!" Howard said as slapped her on the back

"Figured what out?' Theresa asked

"The crew wasn't really trying to hurt you, they were just hazing you" Randy explained

"Hazing me?!" the admiral's daughter exclaimed in anger "Beating me to a pulp is what you lunatics call hazing?!"

"These are dangerous waters we sail on Theresa; you have to be tough to sail with us" Howard further elaborated as he handed he glass of grague "Drink up, you're a wolf now!"

"Sorry I took all my anger toward your father out on you" Flute Girl apologized "Why don't you sit with me and Bucky?"

Before she could say anything, the two crewmen had already lead to their table where offered her some food to eat, which began quickly consume out of the hunger she had been feeling. Meanwhile Randy and Howard watched as the member of ship began to interact with Bucky and Flute Girl.

"There might be some hope for this girl" the first mate said

"Just you wait Howard; we'll make a pirate out of her yet" the captain replied "Now if you'll excuse me, there's something I need to take of"

* * *

Heidi stood over the larboard side of the ship as she spat up blood into the ocean, inwardly cursing herself as she did. The younger girl had blackened her left eye and left a few bruises on her face and possibly knocked one of her teeth loose. Just then, she heard the sound of footsteps coming up to her, she turned around to see her captain standing before her with a mixture of concern and disappointment on his face.

"So do you wanna tell me why you reallydon't like Theresa?" he asked sternly

"You know damn well!" she spat "I've seen how you look at her! It's the same way you used look at me!"

What Heidi said visibly took Randy off guard; however he quickly regained his composer.

"Heidi…what happened between us, I thought we agreed to-"he tried to say

"We agreed to nothing!" she hissed back "If that girl knew what was _really _under that eye-patch she could never love you like I did!"

Randy let out on inhuman snarl in anger as he slapped the older girl across the face, knocking her ground once again. He raised his hand again to strike her once more as a dark red light began glow under his eye-patch, realizing what he had done, he lowered his hand and attempted to help Heidi up as the light dimmed down, only to be shoved back as she stood up.

"I-I'm sorry…" he said sadly

"Don't be, monsters don't apologize" she told him coldly before she started to walk away "I'll still serve under you captain, but other then that; we're done"

With that, Heidi walked back to her quarters, leaving Randy alone on his ship's deck with only the moon and nights cold wind to keep in company. Under the moons light, the captain's shadow was not that of a man, but that of a large winged creature.


	4. No Single Madman

Chapter Four: No Single Madman

* * *

_**KA-Boom! **_

Theresa and the rest of the crew of the Tengu awoke with a start at the sound of the explosion that rocked the ship. Thinking they were under attack, the pirates quickly jumped to their feet in a hurry and grabbed their guns, swords and whatever weapon they get their hands on. As the scrambled around like scared cockroaches, Howard entered the crew's quarters while holding the ship's physician/explosives expert Julian by the collar of his vest. According to what Bucky once told the pirate in training, Julian was an orphan in Haiti who was raised by a voodoo priest and trained in the mystic arts as well the ways of medicine, he also had an unhealthy knack for mixing chemicals that proved to be…hazardous for the Crew's well being.

"Settle down lads, it was just this moron trying to blow the ship up again!" he informed them as he shoved the doctor to the floor

"I wasn't trying to blow up the ship…intentionally" he meekly replied "I was simply testing the reaction of hydrocolloid when mixed with nitroglycerin. The results, shall we say…were very conclusive"

"Well your little test almost blew a hole in the bloody ship!" Howard scolded as he snatched the boy's top-hat off his head and began to smack him with it "I swear the next time you do that again, I'll throttle you all the way to Davey Jones Locker!"

"Duly noted!" Julian yelped during his beating

Just then, Captain Cunningham entered the crew's quarters, fully dressed and looking as regal as ever in Theresa's eyes. With a just a simple glance, he silently commanded Howard to stop his assault on the ship's doctor. He then gently took the top-hat out of his first mate's hands before handing it back to its owner before helping him back to his feet.

"Julian, haven't we talked about this?" the captain asked as if he was a parent talking down to a child

"Yes sir" the voodoo boy answered sadly

"And didn't I tell you what would happen if you did this again?" Randy continued

"Yes…" the crewman answered again, his head hanging low

"Toilets. Go. Now" Randy ordered in a sharp tone as he pointed his finger out of the quarters "And they better be spotless to"

Without any arguments, Julian sadly made his way to the ship's bathrooms, not ready to spend the rest of the week scrubbing them clean. Once Julian had left, the captain of the Tengu turned to face the rest of his crew.

"Alright lads listen up, while you've all been in dreamland I've found us our next target while sailing the ship" Randy began "A Spanish frigate and by the looks of things she's all alone. If the winds are in our favor, we'll be on her in less then two hours tops"

Theresa started to feel a bit uneasy; she did not like the idea of going into combat; obviously dew to the fact that she did not like the idea of taking someone else's life.

"Now just because the Frigate's alone doesn't mean she'll give up without a fight" he continued "But as long as we watch out for one another, we will prevail as we always have. Now get ready lads, we'll be on them soon"

And just like that, the band of pirates began to make preparations for the upcoming assault of the Spanish ship. However, Theresa still wanted no part of this fight and wanted to make that perfectly clear to the captain, but as she approached him, Howard cut in front of her and asked his leader if he could speak with him in private, to which he allowed and the two teens left the crew quarters.

"Hey Theresa, catch!" a female voice called out to her

The admiral's daughter turned around just in time to see a cutlass that was being tossed to her and quickly caught the handle of the blade before it hit the ground. The girl in question that had tossed her the sword, it was Debbie Kang; another girl that sailed under Captain Cunningham. Like Bucky and Flute Girl, Debbie and Theresa became friends after the whole 'hazing' fiasco (which she still didn't like in the least) in truth, she had befriended many of the crew of The Tengu from mid-shipmen Buttermaker to Accordion Dave, she had spent time with them all and was on good terms with her former captors.

Well, everyone except Heidi that is.

The older girl still had no love for the new crewman and still remained cold and bitter toward her no matter what she did, it also came to Theresa's attention that now she was giving the cold shoulder to the captain himself, even when he was simply saying hello and while she couldn't put her finger on it, she had a theory that the rift between the two may be her own fault, but she keep that thought to herself and stay out of Heidi's way. Said older pirate was currently sitting on a box in the coroner away from everyone, sharpening a hatchet with a piece of flint, ready to bury it through some poor soul's head when the time came.

"Bucky said you had some training with a sword" Debbie said to her, breaking her contact on Heidi "Your gonna need that when we board the ship"

"But I don't want to kill anyone!" Theresa admitted "Can't I just stay behind on the boat?"

"We need all hands on deck if we're gonna take that ship Theresa" Debbie explained "And trust me, no one here likes to kill for fun, but we need to in order to survive"

"If you don't like it then you can jump off the ship" Heidi's mentioned harshly as she kept sharpening her weapon, not taking her eyes of it as she did "Because if your not fighting with us, then your just dead weight"

Theresa didn't respond to that, instead she gave a look in determination and began to hold the sword in a stance that she was trained in, she took a few quick swings at the air around her before sheathing the blade under her belt. It was her silent way of telling everyone that she was agreeing to the fight ahead of them, even though inwardly she still feared the worst.

"That's the spirit!" Debbie said with a grin "Here, your gonna need this to"

The Asian teen then handed the new pirate a flintlock pistol and small bag with a few bullets within it.

"You've only got three extra bullets in that bag, so use them wisely. I'd give you more, but we're kinda running low on ammunition as it is" she informed her before asking her obvious "Let me guess: You've never shot a gun before, have you?"

Theresa nodded in response.

"It's easy, just point the gun at someone you don't like and pull the trigger, simple as that" the girl explained "Reloading is a bit tougher though. Here, let me show how to do that"

As Debbie began to teach her friend in reloading her pistol, Heidi rolled her eyes at the sight and made her way out of the crew quarters, slamming the door as she did.

"She's still in a bad mood?" Theresa asked as she put the pistol in her belt

"Well you did beat her face in a couple of days ago, so I'd imagine she'd still be a bit sour about that" Debbie answered "Trust me, if Heidi was in a really bad mood, she would've put that hatchet of hers right between your eyes by now. If you really wanna be on her good side then just stay away from her and you'll be fine; and still breathing to"

"I'll keep that in mind" the admiral's daughter replied

* * *

Meanwhile back in the captain room, Randy and Howard we're busy discussing the upcoming situation. As they talked, the captain of the Tengu was busy arming himself for the battle ahead of them while his raven perched itself on his chair's armrest and ate some fruit its master had given it.

"I'm just saying that we should skip the frigate and find a smaller ship" Howard said to his friend

"And normally I'd agree with you, but we're running low on gunpowder and ammo" Randy answered "And even lower on food and water for that matter"

"But we don't have enough firepower right now to even stand a chance against it!" his first mate argued "we're a twenty gun ship going up against a well-armored forty gun ship, we'd be sunk before we could make a dent in it!"

Despite all stories and rumors that we're told about the infamous firepower of the Tengu, it was in fact not a Man-O-War class ship, but really a Brig class ship with only twenty cannons to bear instead of the fifty some stories claimed it had. Even Theresa was shocked by this revelation when she was told of it by Howard one day, to which he thought was hilarious that an admiral's daughter couldn't tell any type of ship apart all.

"I understand the risks Howard, but we don't have a choice" his captain said sharply as he put on a strap over his shoulder and holstered two more pistols within it "It's either we take the frigate now or skip it and pray something else comes along. Besides, you're forgetting what I can do"

"I know Randy, I'm just concerned for your well-being" Howard admitted with a hint of sadness in his voice "If either you or the ship gets hurt, then-"

"I'll be fine" he assured his friend as he patted the wall to his room "We'll _both_ be fine"

Having said that, Randy put his hat on and headed toward the door to his room, however he stopped just as he was about to touch the doorknob and turned to face his friend once more.

"By the way…I wanted to talk to you about Heidi" he began "I assume you already know that we had a spat last night and I-"

"What's going on between you two is none of my business" the portly boy cut him off "But I will say that you two should probably work something out before you lose control again like you did last time"

Randy only nodded in acknowledgment before letting both himself and Howard out of his room so that he man the helm and set off for their raid on the frigate.

* * *

"Ok, not bad, but your not grounding yourself properly" Debbie informed Theresa "If you don't have the proper footing then your enemy can knock you off balance and take you out just like that"

Even though the young girl had some lessons in the ways of the sword, Theresa was by no means a master at it; therefore she was getting some last-minute training in before the raid began from Debbie while Dave, Bucky and Flute Girl looked on.

"Try to keep your knees locked and feet planted firmly on the floor" she continued

"I'll keep that in mind" Theresa answered before bringing up something "Can I be honest with you?"

"Of course Theresa" the fellow teen said

"I still know if I'm ready for all this" she told her friends "Taking another person's life…god I can't even think of it!"

"Theresa, I know you're still not ok with all this, but like Debbie told you earlier; we do this because we need to survive" Flute Girl spoke up "Tell you what, when the fighting starts you can stick with Bucky and me during the raid, we'll keep you safe"

Just then, Howard entered the crew's quarters once more.

"It's time" he informed everyone

* * *

The sun was still slowly rising up into the sky as the crew walked onto the front deck and from where Theresa was standing, she could see the frigate they where hounding just off in on the horizon. It was then that Captain Cunningham made his way drown from the wheel of the ship and to the rest of the teens. He then jump up onto a box and began speaking to his loyal crew with Howard and Heidi on both side of him.

"There it is lads, the EL Gato Blanco" he began "Most likely their still waking up and having breakfast right now. If we catch them now we can have the upper hand, they may have the stronger guns, but we have the faster ship and so long as we can out maneuver them; then we can win"

The admiral's daughter couldn't help but be amazed by how Randy carried himself before his peers; he was like king giving his loyal knights a speech to instill strength before riding into battle like the books she had read as a child.

"Now as you all know, we do not follow the choice of no single madman" he continued, earning a few laughs from the crowd "But rather we follow the collectiveness of our insanity"

The young pirate then drew his cutlass to further the point.

"So if you want to take that vessel, raise your voices and proudly shout aye!" he proclaimed "all opposed, whimper nay and cower under your bed sheets"

It goes without saying that the pirates were inspired by Randy's speech, even Theresa found herself cheering in agreement alongside the others. The pirates then began to spread out across the deck, loading the cannon that where lined up alongside the ship ad making sure they where in good condition for battle. It was in that moment that Theresa realized that not only might she have to kill people today, but she herself may also die on this day as well. The very thought of that made her feel uneasy about the whole situation, but she couldn't show weakness, not after what happened last time. So despite every part of her mind telling her to run and hide, she stood her ground and prepared for battle.

"Theresa" Randy said to her as he walked up to her "I've got a job for you"

He then led her to a much smaller cannon that was bolted down on the side of the ship.

"I need you to man this swivel gun" he explained "When we get in close, I need you to shoot at the ship's weak points"

"Aye captain" she answered

"'Aye captain?'" he repeated like a question before making a smile form on his lips "If I didn't know any better, I'd say your starting to like this life miss Fowler"

Truth be told, she didn't she still didn't know what to make of this life of a pirate yet, but she just couldn't say no to the captain. She manned the swivel gun as ordered and mentally readied herself for what was to come. The frigate was getting closer into view as the Tengu began to hone in on it, making everyone onboard begin to feel the anticipation in the air. Suddenly a long blast was heard from the frigate, then came a high-pitched whistling sound could be heard. Before anyone could react, two spots of water erupted in front of the pirate ship.

"They have aft cannon!" Howard exclaimed in shock

"So much for the element of surprise!" Heidi said

"Hang on everyone!" Randy shouted to his crew as he quickly spun the wheel to the right

The Tengu went hard to starboard to avoid the frigate's aft cannon, nearly knock several crewmen off of their feet. Once the pirate ship was brought broadside it had its cannons where brought to bear.

"Fire!" he commanded

A roar of cannon fire exploded from the Tengu, ripping into its prey side as its cannonballs tore open huge holes into it. In retaliation, the Spanish vessel fired back with an even greater firepower.

"Brace!" Randy yelled out

A hail of huge cannonballs slammed into the Tengu, knocking many of pirates including Theresa off of their feet. The pirate-in-training, shot back up and to hold of the swivel gun once more, but out of the coroner of her eye, she noticed Randy had fallen onto his knees, clinging to the wheel for dear life, spitting up blood onto the floor. Theresa scanned him over to see if he had been struck by debris, but much to her surprise, he didn't have a single scratch on him. Before she could say or do anything to help him, the captain got back to his feet and began to steer the ship out of their enemy's firing range.

"We're ready sir!" Bucky called to his leader

"Then fire again!" Randy shot back

As ordered, the pirates launched another volley of cannon fire as it circled around the frigate, blasting away more metal and wood from its hull as it did.

"Theresa, shoot at the hull now!" Randy ordered her

The admiral's daughter took aim at the damaged hull and without even thinking, she fire a round off into the weakened part of the enemy ship. She felt a rush of excitement course through her as she watched an explosion rock the area she and fired at, it was a sensation she was both thrilled and ashamed off at the same time.

The frigate attempted to fire back, back the Tengu had already prepared its cannons and launched another assault on it, blasting more holes into it as it did. The frigate attempted to turn its broadside cannons in range to fire, but the pirate ship clearly had the seed advantage in this match, but the pirate knew .

"Ready the chain shot Bucky!" Randy called out to the cabin boy

"Aye Captain!" he replied before turning to the rest of the crew "Load the chain shot!"

As commanded, loaded the chain shot into the cannons as Randy made another sharp turn in order to get a closer shot at their target.

"Fire on the mast!" Randy shouted

Once again, the Tengu's cannon's blazed, this time firing the chain shot at the mast, splintering the wood and ripping through the sails when it made impact. Like a tree being cut down, the mast of the enemy ship broke off and splashed into the waters below, crippling the Spanish vessel.

"Reel them in and take the prize!" Randy proclaimed

The crew of the Tengu them drew out grappling hooks and began to swing them over to the damaged ship, then they began pull their prey toward them with all their combined might. Soon enough, the two ships where besides one another and they real fight was about to begin. Bullets flew threw back and forth in the air as the crews of two ships shot at one another. Randy took hold of a rope and swung over to the Spanish ship, this loyal crew following soon after him as they jumped over to the ship.

"Do your worst lads!" he called out to his crewmen as he gunned down two sailors with his pistols

Without even thinking, Theresa drew her sword and jumped onto the other ship and looked upon her first taste of battle. Howard aimed his blunderbuss at a group of on-coming sailors and fired, killing them all in one blast before putting his gun away and pulling out an ax in order to clash with more of the sailors. Julian was currently dropping bombs into the lower parts of the El Gato Blanco, killing any who were unfortunate enough to get caught in the blast while laughing like a madman as he did it. Buttermaker was busy impaling one of his foes with a harpoon while Dave and Debbie kept him cover with musket shots to who ever tried to stab him in the back.

Heidi was like a warrior woman, with only two hatchets she was cutting down sailors left and right. One of the sailors aimed his rifle at her and was about to fire, only to have Heidi take hold of the end of the rifle with her weapon and make him shoot one of his own men at last second before cutting his throat open with the other hatchet. Morgan was high in the Tengu's crow's-nest, picking off Spanish sailors with well placed shots from her arrow, never missing a single shot. Bucky and Flute Girl where back to back as they locked blades with the enemy, shouting and swearing like drunks as they did, she was to far away to reach them and their to many Spaniards fighting it out with the pirates to even try.

Among all the chaos there stood Randy, locking blades with the ship captain, matching him blow for blow as their swords crashed against one another again and again. To Theresa, he looked like he had walked right of the stories of swashbuckling heroes her mother used to tell her when she was small.

Suddenly, Theresa felt a strong blow strike her back, knocking her down in the process. She looked up to see a massive man carrying a battle ax in his hand looking down at her with murder in his eyes. As he held his ax over head and prepared to bring it down on her, the new pirate drew her cutlass and in that instant, jabbed the blade through the man's stomach. The man cried out in pain as he dropped his ax and dropped to his knees, keeping his now fading eyes locked on his killer as he did. Theresa gasped in horror at what she just did, pulling out the now bloodstained blade as she did as she watched the man bleed to death on the ground. She dropped her sword like it was burning piece of coal, still unable to believe what she had done.

Just then, she heard a cheer from the pirates and turned to see Captain Cunningham standing over the captain of the El Gato Blanco's body with a bloody sword in his hand. As she slowly picked herself up off of the floor, she saw the sailors surrendering to the pirates, loosening the will to fight on now that their leader was gone.

"Who here speaks English?" Randy asked the Spanish sailors "Anyone at all?"

"Little bit" one of the sailors spoke up meekly

"Tell your friends that we're taking most of your food, water, ammunition and whatever else we like and if you'll all stay clam and do as I say, then we'll be on our merry way in no time and you all get to live" he explained casually "Savvy?"

"…please to repeat?" the sailor asked, dumbfounded

"Oh for fucks sake, lock 'em all up in the lower deck!" the pirate captain said to his crew

As instructed, one half of the Tengu began to round up the Spaniards and escort them to the lower decks while the other half began to gather up the rescores they desperately needed. Suddenly, one of the sailors broke away from his fellow crewmen and drew his pistol and aimed it at Randy, who was busy wiping the blood off his blade.

"Captain, look out!" Theresa shouted out to him

Randy spun around just as the Spaniard pulled the trigger, striking the captain dead-on. The pirates looked on in frozen shock as their leader fell to the ground in a slump, even Theresa was stunned by what she saw. Without even thinking, she drew her pistol and fired at the sailor who might have just killed the captain of the Tengu, hitting him right in the temple and killing him in under a second. Once again, she had killed another man she had no knowledge of, however this time she did not feel sorrow, but satisfaction. Terrified by both this strange sensation and at the thought of Randy dying right in front of her, she ran back to the Tengu. The rest of the crew didn't notice her flee; they were all rushing over to their fallen leader to hopefully find him alive.

As Theresa jumped back unto the Tengu, she saw something leaking out of the ship's mast. Suddenly taken over by a sense of curiosity, the young woman walked up to the mast and placed her hand on it, swiping off some of the strange liquid that was oozing out of it and gasped in fright when she realized what it was.

The ship was bleeding.


	5. Nassau

Chapter Five: Nassau

* * *

"_Let me go!_" the boy cried out

"_You chose this boy!_" the man snarled as he held his arm in a vice-grip

"_I didn't want this!_" the boy shot back, trying to break free

"_If you want the power you seek, then this is the only way!_" the man told him as he raised his knife into the air "_Now embrace our master's love!_"

"No!" Randy shouted into the shadows of his cabin as he shot up in his bed

In that instant, the captain of the Tengu let out a hiss in pain as he tightly clutched his torso. It was then that he noticed that his stomach was wrapped in bandages and most of his cloths save his pants where off. Just then, Howard entered his room with a look of both surprise and relief on his face.

"Oh thank god, you finally awake!" he sighed out "I was starting to think you died!"

"What happened to me?" his captain asked weakly

"You don't remember?" Howard replied "You where shot by one of sailors from that ship we took, we did everything we could to keep you alive, but when the wound became infected and you caught a fever from it, we all feared the worst"

"How long have I been out?" Randy questioned

"About three days" his first mate answered "We picked the frigate clean and stranded those bastards at sea with nothing but torn sails in case you we're wondering"

"And how is the ship?" Randy inquired, not wanting to know the answer

"She bled for an hour or so until we patched you up" Howard explained "We spent even longer cleaning the blood after it had stopped"

Randy closed his eye as he put his hand on the wall of the ship, feeling for the vessel's pain. He could sense that the Tengu had mostly healed from its battle with the Spanish, but still felt weary from the sickness that Randy was currently coming out of. He inwardly cursed himself for getting careless during a raid; even if it was over he should've kept his open in case something like this would happen.

"Where are we now?" Randy inquired as he opened his eyes and pulled his hand away from the wall

"Somewhere safe" his first mate assured "the safest place for any pirate in fact"

"I see, Tortuga then?" the young captain concluded

"No, better" Howard corrected with a grin "I took us to Nassau"

Randy looked out his window to see that his ship was docked in one of the most infamous homes for pirates from all across the seven seas. To British Empire, this was a place of squalor and sin, but to its intended audience, it was a place where a man could be free to do as he wishes. Randy grunted in pain as he weakly climbed out of his bed, to which Howard quickly rushed to his side.

"Whoa! What the hell do you think your doing Cunningham?!" he demanded as he attempted to get him back to his bed "You need your rest!"

"I've been in that damn bed for thee days Howard, I'd say I've rested enough" his captain replied as he gently pushed his friend back

Just then the kaw of Randy's raven could be heard outside his window. Howard walked over to it and opened to allow his captain's pet to fly in and land on Randy's outstretched arm.

"There you are Shadow" his master said as he petted the bird "I was starting to wonder where you were"

"He wouldn't stop squawking at you to wake up, so we let him out to fly around the ship" Howard mentioned "Theresa's been taking care of him since you've been ill"

Upon hearing her name, Randy's mind suddenly flashed back to the day he was shot. He remembered hearing Theresa's warning very briefly before the bullet had struck him. As he started to black out, he could hear the sound a gun-shot ring out, it take long for Randy to figure out who had pulled the trigger on the man who had shot him.

"And how is Miss Fowler?" the captain questioned

"She's a tad shaken up after seeing the ship bleed for the first time" Howard explained "she's been living the crew's quarters ever since the battle. We've all been all so concerned about you that we kind of forgot about her and left her alone. What do you wanna do with her?"

"I'll talk to her" was all Randy said as he put on his shirt, vest and hat

With that, the pirate captain alongside his first mate stepped out of his quarters. It was there that he found his entire crew on deck eagerly waiting to see him up and about.

"What are you all still doing on the ship? I'm fine!" Randy questioned them all "We're in Nassau! I want you all to get off this boat and have some fun, that's an order!"

The crew of the Tengu gave a grateful cheer to their leader before departing off the ship and spilling into the town of pirates. As the rest of the teens left, Randy stayed behind in order to have a private conversation with the last remaining crew member that was still hidden away on the ship.

* * *

It had not been a good three days for Theresa. She hadn't left her hammock except for food and not much else in that time. Her mind was almost at sanity's end after all the things she had seen and done and it was taking its toll on her mind. What was also lingering in her thoughts was the condition of Captain Cunningham, who she still had no idea if he was still alive or had finally passed on. Theresa knew that without the captain's protection, there was a good chance that Heidi might finally get her chance to kill her, not to mention she would still have no answers as to how ship bled or how it was connected to him. Surprisingly though, what wasn't on her mind was going back home to her farther. The admiral's daughter hated to admit it, but she beginning to fell at home about this band of cut-throats.

Just then, the captain's raven flew out of the darkness of the ship and landed on her knee as she sat in her hammock, making her grin happily as the bird did. During the captain's absence, his pet raven had been coming around the young girl. At first it would sit on the rafters and silently watch her, soon enough it began to fly up to her and allow her to pet and feed it.

"Hello pretty bird" Theresa greeted happily as she began to stroke his feathers "And where have you been today?"

"Seeing me" a voice spoke up

Theresa jump in surprise before turning to where the voice came from and saw Randy stepping toward her as his pet flew off into the darkness of the lower levels of the ship. The new pirate nearly fell out of her hammock in shock at the sight him; she fumbled for her cutlass and aimed at his throat.

"Not another step!" she warned "Not until you tell me what you are!"

Randy gently pushed the blade away from his throat with his finger; he then held out his hand to her and gave her soft smile.

"I'm a friend" he told her softly

Theresa had no idea why she took his hand, but she reached out and clasped his hand with her own and allowed the pirate captain to pull her up from her bed.

"Let's take a walk" he said "We have a lot to talk about"

* * *

The crew of the Tengu had spread out into the city of Nassau, some followed Howard to the Broken Jaw Tavern, while others such as Doug and Reginald went off to gamble away their money, but some of the crewmembers went off to find the warm touch of a woman at one of local brothels named 'Pain &amp; Pleasure', a whorehouse run by one Madame Driscoll who was an old friend of the crew and had plenty of girls to spare for the lustful pirates whenever they made port.

Julian found a pair of lovely Haitian women who followed him to a room in order to see his 'hat trick' while Stevens carried off a pretty blonde to bed with him. Jacques spoke French to a trio of girls who swooned at his native language before they pulled him into an empty room and locked the door behind them.

Another such person was Heidi Weinerman, who hoped sex would drive out the anger she had welling up inside her. She didn't need to pay for a partner; she already had one of those, she only needed a room for the night. Once she bought one, she and her partner were getting to forget their problem in flurry of passion when Heidi noticed her captain walking the muddy streets of Nassau with the girl that was meant to be bait for their enemies just outside her window.

"Look at him" she sneered "He gets shot and three days later he's back to being the cock of the walk"

"Admit it Heidi" Debbie Kang said in a mocking tone as she undid Heidi's belt "You still like the walk of that cock"

"I didn't ask you!" the older girl hissed back as she threw her shirt off "I'm trying to forget him!"

"Kinda hard to do that when you keep bringing him up" her lover replied before eyeing the room "You know, this looks a lot like the room the night you and Randy first met me"

"You mean the night we shared you" Heidi corrected before she kiss down Debbie's neck and collarbone

"You two were so gentle with me" her partner moaned back "But tonight I think you wanna to play a little rough"

Heidi suddenly grabbed her friend by the arms before roughly tossing her unto the bed, she then climbed on top of her and kissed her deeply, letting her tongue slip into the Asian teen's mouth as she did.

"Does that answer your question?" the ginger asked after she broke the kiss

As she began to undo the buttons on Debbie's shirt, her lovers hand suddenly grabbed her own to stop her.

"Wait; before we do this…" she began in a lust-filled voice "Can you use your real voice? I always hated your English accent"

Heidi rolled her eyes in and sighed annoyance, she couldn't say no to the girl she was using for sex. She leaned in close to her partner's face before licking the tip of her nose when she was close enough before lowering herself down to Debbie's ear.

"Get ready lass" she whispered in her true Irish accent as she kissed her cheek "'Cause t'night I will love y'e like n'er man had e'ver before"

With that, she blew out the bedside lantern and began to make love like a wild woman to the Asian girl.

* * *

Howard was man of few needs, but one thing was always on his mind whenever he reached any port: Rum. Sure he loved money and women, but the bitter sweet taste of the wondrous alcohol was all he needed to make him truly happy. So he sat at the bar table of his favorite tavern in all of Nassau known as The Broken Jaw alongside Bucky, Flute Girl, Dave and Buttermaker, drinking away any rational thought they had tonight.

"So what do you think of her?" Flute Girl asked her shipmates "Theresa I mean"

"She's alright—albeit a tad skittish for our line of work, but that might change over time" the Tengu's first mate replied before gulping more Rum

"You think we should tell her about why we really have her with us?" the girl continued "We owe her that much at least"

"Could you shut your gob for ten seconds?!" her commanding officer snapped "Can't a man enjoy his rum in peace?!"

The cabin girl quickly piped down after Howard's outburst, however she still felt wrong for hiding the truth from Theresa, true she take part in her brutal hazing process, but after that she and the admiral's daughter had become good friends since then.

Suddenly the sounds of two men shouting could be heard from one end of the bar over some woman by the sound of it. As expected, one of the men threw a punch which knocked the second man into a bystander, spilling his glass of rum in the process. Within seconds the whole bar erupted into a full-on brawl; however Howard wasn't impressed by the carnage that was before him.

"Y'a call this a bar fight?" he scoffed before finishing his glass of rum "Come on lads, lets take 'em to school!"

"Aye!" his shipmates cheered in argument

Howard causally got up from his seat, he then smashed his empty glass over random drunkard's head before grabbing the stool he was sitting on and smacked another man in the chest with it, knocking him to the floor with a few cracked ribs. Buttermaker charged at group of brawlers, punching and kicking anyone that was unfortunate enough to get in his way like the Viking warrior he was descended from. Dave grabbed a man and hurled him onto a nearby table, smashing it on contact before body-slamming the poor soul and pummeling his face repeatedly.

Unlike his friends who knew their strengths, Bucky made the very poor choice of picking a fight with the regular bar patron named Shamus Mccloud, who was a six-foot-nine mountain of Irish muscle. Like Howard before him, Bucky took his glass and used it out a weapon; however instead of bashing Shamus's head with it, he threw it at his opponent's chest, which harmlessly bounced his abs, which was enough to get the Irishman's attention none the less.

"Great, now he's gonna murder your face off" Flute Girl informed her friend as she took a few steps away from the killzone "Nice knowing y'a Buck"

Shamus marched over to Bucky with a look of primal rage in his eyes.

"I'm gonna fuck'in have y'e y'a little tosser!" he declared as picked up Bucky by his shirt collar with one hand

"Any chance we can talk this over?" Bucky asked meekly

* * *

In no way was Nassau like England or any other place Theresa had been in the past. The streets where muddy and covered in substances that she did not want to think about, drunk men and women sat either asking for money or for liquor, not to mention the buildings where poorly constructed and full of scum and sin in every one. This was not the kind of walk she had in mind when Randy had asked for one, but she had a lot more then the town around her at the moment. She and the captain had been walking in silence for some time now, but she knew that it wouldn't stay like this for long.

"So I assume you have questions for me" Randy asked "Ask away"

Theresa started with the obvious one first.

"I saw the ship bleed, how is that even possible?" she questioned

Randy let out calm sigh before giving his answer.

"Years ago, when I was younger, I lost some people who very close to me by a cruel man" he began "I lived on the streets of Boston as orphan until I was found by some men who offered me a chance at revenge. They made me a member of a secret society and they trained in the ways of killing a man, but along the way…I literality lost my soul"

Theresa could not believe what the pirate was telling her, but after seeing the Tengu bleed, she was willing to give any impossibility the benefit of the doubt at this point.

"They put something evil inside of me, an evil that has the power to destroy entire armies and change the course of this world forever" he continued "I escaped, but not before they wounded me, as I ran and hid in the docks, my blood touched the ship would become my vessel, forever bounding it to me. After I met Howard and Heidi, we stole the boat and began our road to become what we are now"

"My god…" Theresa gasped after hearing his tragic tale

"Now I spend my days containing this darkness under my skin" Randy furthered sadly as he looked away "But the darkness finds its way out, one way or another"

"This...evil, can you control it?" the admiral's daughter asked carefully

"Not really, just barrow it's power, but the more power I use the more the darkness escapes from my body" He replied "I won't be free of it until I pass on from this world"

"That can't be true!" Theresa said sharply in defiance "No man should suffer like that!"

"There's nothing I can do Theresa, believe me I've tried" the captain answered in a somber tone "But as I long as I live on this earth, I'll lead a short but merry life"

He then took her hand in his hand, making the girl blush bright red doing so.

"It's a life I'd like you to be apart of" he told her softly

Before Theresa could say or do anything in response, the loud crash of a window broke the tension between the two teens. They turned to see Bucky who was covered in cuts and bruises lying on the ground before them after being tossed out of the window and his face being pounded in. The cabin boy stood back up and dusted himself off before noticing his leader and the purple-haired girl.

"Captain, Theresa" he acknowledge

"Bucky" Randy replied casually "Shamus Mccloud?"

"Yes sir" Bucky replied

"I see" the captain said "Carry on then"

"Thank you sir" the cabin boy said before walking back into the tavern through the front door

"As I said Theresa, a short but merry life" Randy informed her

Out of the corner of his eye, the young pirate caught a glimpse of a pair of men looking at him and the admiral's daughter. Suddenly the two men started to make their way toward the teenagers; however they stopped dead in their tracks when Randy drew his pistol and put Theresa behind him for her protection.

"Not another step lads" he warned them "Unless you've made your peace with God"

"Apologies Captain Cunningham, we don't mean any harm" one of the men began "We came to bring you to our captain; he says he wants to meet with you"

"And I should just trust you two?" Randy questioned

"Our captain says you he owes you a hundred Quinn for beating him in a game of cards" the pirate explained

Randy's suspicion quickly dropped when he figured out who it was, he put away his pistol and let out a small laugh.

"Oh this is to good" he chuckled before looking over to Theresa "Come along Miss Fowler, there's someone I want you to meet"

Theresa nodded in response as they followed the two men to another tavern near the docks. Once there, they found a tall man sitting at a table on the far end of the tavern. The man wore a white and blue cloak with at least four pistols strapped to his body and a pair of blades strapped to his sides as well. He wore leather armor and boots and had a white hood covering his face. Upon seeing Randy and Theresa approach him, the pirate stood up and removed his hood to greet them. Theresa let out a small gasp of realization at the sight of who this man was.

"Theresa, may I introduce Captain Edward Kenway" Randy said to her

* * *

"I'm sorry to call you away from London my friend, but I had no other choice" John Fowler said to the man "You're my only hope of saving my daughter"

The one-armed naval officer stifled a grim from forming on his face, he knew John would come calling for him to rescue his brat and quit frankly he welcomed the chance to chase down the likes of Randy Cunningham once more, but not for the admiral's sake or for even the British empire, but rather for his _true _master.

"You have nothing to fear John" Commodore Mcfist assured "I'll take care of everything"


	6. The Tale of The Cipher

Chapter Six: The Tale of the Cipher

Theresa was told to sit away from the table that Randy and Edward had sat down at in order to talk about what Kenway had claimed to be a business proposal, much to her chagrin, she hated being hit on by every patron at the bar—male and female alike. Despite the constant onslaught of unwanted attention from the constant drunkards, the pirate in training could hardly believe that she was in the presence of yet another infamous scoundrel of the seven seas. She heard stories of the pirates amazing exploits and was always told that he was someone to be feared, but like Randy, Captain Kenway seemed like a decent enough man despite being someone who sailed under a black flag. He was gentleman through and through when he was introduced to the admiral's daughter, even charming her to the point of blushing; a gesture that seemed to annoy her captain to no end. As they sat and shared a bottle of rum together, Theresa could only imagine that the two pirates were discussing.

"So I see you've doing well for yourself" Captain Cunningham began "Fate's been very kind to you"

"Fate's got nothing to do with it lad, I make my own destiny" Edward replied before taking a swig of his glass of rum "By the way, that girl wouldn't happen to be—"

"John Fowler's daughter, the very one" the captain of the Tengu finished "We're teaching her to be a proper pirate"

"And they call me mad" Kenway said under his breath with a small chuckle

"Something tells me that you didn't call me just to just to catch up?" Randy cut to the chase "What do you really want Kenway?"

Edward took a big gulp of his drink before speaking.

"I'm after a man that a certain group of friends of mine want dead" he began "A man you've clashed with a few times in your travels"

"I've made a lot of enemies Edward, your going to have to be a bit specific as to which" Randy replied

"Irving Slimovitz, does that name ring any bells?" the captain of the Jackdaw inquired

The name did indeed strike a cord in Randy's mind. Slimovitz was a wealthy merchant and a worse a slave trader for the British Empire and owned his own trading company with a fleet of ships under his command. The crew of Tengu had preyed upon a few of the merchant's ship's in the past and rescued slaves from being sold like cattle on the market as well, which of course infuriated the rich man with every fiber of his being.

"I suppose these 'friends' of yours are the same people that keep telling you that bloody Observatory you go on about is real?" Randy inquired with a smirk before sipping his rum

"That's none of your business" Edward warned

"Easy Kenway, we're all friends here" the young captain assured "So, what do you need my help with? And better yet, what's in it for my crew and me?"

"You help me find and kill Slimovitz and I'll let you and your crew keep half of whatever supplies and money we find along the way" the robe-clad pirate offered before outstretching his hand "So, do we have a deal?"

Randy briefly contemplated the proposal in his head, his crew still had enough supplies from the frigate they attacked to keep them well stock for a few months, but it never hurt to had more to that number; plus a bit more money in his and his crew's pockets wouldn't hurt either, not to mention finally getting a chance to finally kill that rat bastard merchant was to good an opportunity to pass up. It was by all accounts a win/win/win situation in the young pirate's mind.

"Deal" Randy replied as he shook his new partner's hand "we'll leave at dawn tomorrow"

"Sounds good to me" the older pirate agreed before holding up his glass of rum "cheers"

The two captains clicked their glasses together before finishing off their drinks and proceeded to part ways, with Randy silently motioning for Theresa to follow him out of the bar.

"If you don't mind me asking captain, what was that all about?" she asked

"I believe Captain Kenway just asked me to help him kill a templar" her leader replied with a small laugh "That is if such a thing exists"

The admiral's daughter stopped for a second to process what exactly the teen had just said. When she was a young girl growing up in England with her farther, that word was used in passing a few times in her father's private meetings with some of his colleges and while she didn't know what that word meant, she had a feeling that nothing good could come from it.

"Is something the matter Theresa?" Randy asked

"What? Oh—it's nothing captain" she quickly answered "Just lost myself for a moment"

Randy squinted at her with his single eye, as if he knew that she was lying to him, but he merely brushed it off.

"Well then, I suggest you get some rest Miss Fowler" he informed her "We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow"

He then reached into his coat before pulling out a few gold coins out of it.

"Here, this should be enough for an overnight room in one of Inn's as well as breakfast in the morning" he said as he handed her the coins "I'm going back to the ship, she gets a bit restless when I'm gone to long"

With not another word spoken or before Theresa could say anything else, the captain mad his way back toward the ship, leaving the girl alone to find an Inn on her own.

* * *

After almost an hour of wondering around the town and walking into bars and brothels by accident, the admiral's daughter finally found an Inn that looked decent enough for her to at least spend the night in. She did not give them Innkeeper her true last name, out of fear of being lynched by everyone on the island, she instead told them her first name and told them of who she sailed under and that was it. After paying for her room at the front desk, she sat in the Inn's living room as she waited for her room to be prepared for her. As she, the pirate in training noticed a middle-aged man with mutton-chops sitting by the fireplace with two other men around him as he told them a story, one of the men Theresa recognized as a fellow crewmen named Doug. The man in turn noticed the young girl looking toward his direction and stopped his story.

"You wanna hear a story lass?" he asked "Come closer then and I'll tell y'a tale that is sure to make your hair stand on end"

Before her brain could tell her no, Theresa got up from her seat and walked over to the group of men in order to hear the story.

"Your just in time missy, I was about to tell these lads about a ship that's crewed by the dammed" he informed her

"Oh not the story about the Black Pearl again!" Doug groaned "You've told that tale to everyone from here to Tortuga!"

"This ain't about the Pearl Doug, so shut your gob!" the storyteller warned harshly before regaining his composer "This is a tale of the Cipher"

A hush fell over the group as the man began is tale.

"A long time ago, twin brothers were captains of a pirate ship called the Cipher and for many years the brothers and there ransacked the seven seas and horded gold upon there vessel like dragons. They brothers continued to plunder ships and settlements well into their elderly years, but the times of merriment grew short as one brother grew greedy for more gold and to become the sole captain of the ship"

The admiral's daughter as well as the other pirates felt a sense of dread creep up their spines as the man continued his story.

"Now among the brother's crew the greedy brother had a set of twin grandchildren; a young boy and girl who were just as wicked as he was" he furthered on "he convinced his grandchildren and the rest of the crew to turn on his brother and make him the only captain. Needless to say, the man got what he wanted"

"Is that the end of the story? That's not scary!" Doug complained

The crewman was quickly silenced by a quick smack over the head by the storyteller

"As I was saying, after a few weeks as their captain, the old man had gotten them all lost at sea" he continued "with their food gone, the captain's grandchildren convinced the crew how to fix their food shortage: by eating their grandfather"

A collect gasp fell upon the listeners when they heard that.

"As they tore him apart in a feeding frenzy, the old man cursed the lot of 'em; saying they were more shark then men and they would never sate their blood thirst as long as they live their unnatural lives"

Theresa felt a bit ill at this point in the story.

"But that wasn't the end of it oh no, for now the Cipher needed a captain and the twins both wanted that spot" the storyteller went on "So the boy beheaded his own sister and kept her head as a warning to the others if they ever got the idea of turning on him, but the crew of the Cipher's troubles and only truly begun"

"What happen to them?" Theresa asked, trying her best to hide her fear as she did

"They could swim deep under water without coming up for air; they felt more comfortable at sea then on land and their lust for gold soon became a lust for human flesh that they could never satisfy" the storyteller explained "As the new captain's grandfather had said 'they were more sharks then men'"

Another cold chill went of Theresa's spine when she heard that.

"So if you ever come across a ship whose Jolly Roger looks like a triangle-shaped man, then I hope you're on good terms with the lord almighty himself, because only divine intervention can save you at that point" he warned his listening "Because on that ship is a crew of immortal monsters lead by a boy captain whose got birthmark that looks like a constellation upon his forehead, but if you've seen them; chances are their already feeding on you for supper!"

The storyteller finished his story, leaving his listeners trying to keep themselves from shaking in fright. As the other pirates retired for the night, Theresa stayed a little longer to speak with the man.

"That was quite a story Mr…" she said as a way of trying to get his name

"Gibbs miss, Joshamee Gibbs" he introduced with a smile "an that was not just a story miss, it's the God's honest truth"

"I'm willing to believe it" the girl replied, thinking back to what Randy had told her earlier in the night "well in any case, I'm sure I won't be sleeping well tonight"

"I'd say have a sip of rum and you'll be sleeping like a babe" Mr. Gibbs offered

Theresa laughed off the suggestion; she had never nor ever wanted to touch the liquid as long as she lived. Just before she went off to her room, the girl's curiousity made her ask one more question.

"You said the boy had a birthmark like a constellation on his head" she began "Which on was it?"

"Why, the Big Dipper miss" Gibbs answered simply before heading off to his room

Theresa also headed to her room, but as she slept on the bed, she couldn't keep her mind from running wild with all the thoughts of all she heard tonight. Pirates, secret societies and monsters; things only thought to be in fairy tales to her now were seemingly all too real to her. She turned her head to look over to the docks where she could see the Tengu and began to wonder if her captain was sleeping well tonight.

* * *

Randy stumbled into his quarters as he cried out in pain, clutching his eye patch as he did. He couldn't stay on the island any longer or the sin that filled the very air in Nassau would overwhelm him and the darkness within him would take hold his body. The young captain may have told Theresa about his struggle, but he did not tell her everything for her own safety. As he writhed in agony on the floor, his shadow slowly crept up along the wall, morphing into something much more inhuman then it once was.

"_**You cannot resist me forever**_" the now bird-like shadow mocked, with blazing hellish red eyes "_**I am your very soul**_"

"N-Never…" Randy whispered out weakly "I'll never let you win!"

"_**You will break boy!**_" the shadow snarled "_**And when that day comes, I shall burn this world to the ground!**_"

The shadow then changed back its original form, leaving Captain Cunningham lying in a broken heap on the floor with only his tears to comfort him.


	7. Templar Hunt part 1

Chapter Seven: Templar Hunt part 1

"Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me…" Howard sang in a drunken slur as he sat up against the bar table with a half-empty bottle of rum in his hand "we're…we're uh…how does the rest of that song go again?"

"I think it has something to do with bad eggs" Dave replied in a daze as he lay across the table Howard was sitting up against with a black eye

The bar fight had been a brutal one indeed with no clear winner at the end of it, only bruises, bloody noses and broken bones were the only rewards the band of thieves had received in the fist fight and to the Tengu's first-mate, that was enough for him. Flute Girl was currently slumped over on a chair with her now broken glasses hanging lopsided on her face, completely worn out from pleasuring the three men she started fighting before she ended up having sex with them halfway through the brawl. Bucky was currently laying on one of tavern's ceiling rafters where Shamus Mccloud had left him after he was done pummeling the poor boy senseless. As for Buttermaker who had beaten down several men during the bar fight, he had disappeared off into the town with the girl who had started the fight in tow.

Just then, the portly ginger felt a sharp kick to his side, making him yelp in both surprise and pain. He looked up to see the fool who had the stones to strike him like that, but what was he saw was his captain looking down him, not surprised to find his quarter-master drunk.

"Oh *hic* hiya cap'in" Howard greeted with a smile before offering his glass "Wanna wet your whistle?"

"Get everyone back to Tengu" his leader ordered "we've got a job to do"

"Oh but we just got here!" the first-mate whined

"Now Howard!" Randy commanded, making his friend jump to his feet

"Aye captain!" he quickly answered in a more sober tone before turning to his fellow drunken crewmen "Your heard the captain y'a bunch of lousy sea-dogs get up!"

While the young pirates where trying to pick themselves up from their dazed and beaten state, Randy had already left the tavern in order to get back to the ship before his inner demon attempted to take hold of his body once more as fast as he could. As he made his way down the street back to the docks, he didn't notice his former lover was looking down at him from her room in the brothel.

"Well look who's wide and awake" Heidi hissed with disdain "I bet he's going to go find that brat now"

"Can we not do this now Heidi?" Debbie asked in a groggy tone as she approached her "We spent the whole night making love and you want to ruin it by going back to being mad at the captain"

Heidi merely gave an 'hmph!' in response before looking back down at the street below to watch as Randy left her sight. Debbie wrapped her arms around her lover's waist and kissed her cheek in an attempt to sooth the Irish girl's anger; however she found her caring advances rebuffed when Heidi yanked her arms off of her person.

"Don't read to deep into last night, Kang" she growled "It was just sex and nothing more"

The Asian teen opened her mouth to answer, but instead closed it and quickly threw on her cloths and stormed out of the room; all the while making sure that Heidi didn't see her begin to tear up as she did. There was a part of Heidi that wanted to stop the girl and tell her that she needed her right now more then anything, but the rage in her heart kept her standing there, watching the only other person she ever loved aside from Randy leave her behind.

* * *

Theresa awoke and let out a soft yawn as the suns rays slowly hit her eyelids through the window. In the time she had spent sleeping in a hammock on The Tengu, sleeping on a bed felt almost alien to her, but she still relished every second of it; not knowing when the next time she would lay her head upon a proper pillow again.

After taking a quick bath and getting dressed, she went into the dining room of the Inn to get some breakfast in her before heading out to find Captain Cunningham. The admiral's daughter didn't say anything last night, but she could sense that there was something clearly wrong the young pirate and wanted to at least get him to talk about it.

As she sat down at the dinner table and waited to be served her breakfast she looked around the table for Mr. Gibbs, but he was nowhere to be found. She felt slightly disappointed by not seeing the old storyteller again and telling him how amazing his tale was once more. Just then, she felt a tap on her shoulder that made her jump in surprise. Theresa turned around to see her fellow crewman Doug standing before looking fully dressed and ready to leave the Inn.

"The captain wants everyone back on the ship" he informed her

"So soon?" Theresa asked, clearly taken aback by this "But why?"

"Beats me, but orders are orders" her fellow crewman answered with a shrug "Come on, lets get going"

With a small nod, the pirate in training got up from her seat and followed Doug out of the Inn. Even though she had asked why they were going back to The Tengu she already had inkling as to why. She surmised that it must have something to do with whatever deal Randy had struck with Kenway the previous night, however she kept it to herself for two reasons. The first being that there could another reason the captain was rallying everyone back to The Tengu and the second was that she figured if told Doug then he would tell the rest of the crew they might feel betrayed that some newcomer was trusted first with vital information over them, not to mention she might lose the friends she had made on the ship.

"Are you ok, Theresa?" Doug asked

"Hm? Oh—yes! I'm fine" the pirate in training quickly replied, still keeping her thoughts to herself as she did "I'm fine…"

* * *

Soon enough Theresa and Doug had returned to The Tengu to find everyone else had already beaten them there and were all standing on the deck, collectively looking up at the ship's wheel as they did. The admiral's daughter looked up to see Randy standing over his crew with Kenway standing next to him and his pet raven on his shoulder as well. As she looked at the crew, she noticed that Debbie's eyes where red and puffy, but she still kept up a strong composed look to her despite the tears she had clearly shed; it was something that Howard had taken notice to as well. Before Theresa could walk over and ask what had happened to her, the young pirate captain began to speak.

"Now that's everyone's here, we can get started" he began "I know you all wanted to stay in Nassau a bit longer, but Captain Kenway needs our help with a certain problem"

"And what problem is that?" Heidi questioned in an uncaring tone of voice

"I need your help in finding and killing a man by the name of Irving Slimovitz" Edward explained

The very mention of that name clearly got the crew of the Tengu's attention—including Theresa's. Slimovitz was a friend of her farther and she had met him once or twice during a few parties she went to when she was a little girl and he seemed like a nice enough man; so why did Edward want to kill him? She had to know why a good man had to die.

"And why do you want to kill him, Captain Kenway?" She found herself asking before even thinking about it

Her fellow crewman turned to look at her with a mixture of confusion and disgust on their faces, as if they were surprised she was even asking that question. Before anyone could speak up, Edward answered her question.

"While I have my own reasons to end his life Miss Fowler, I believe your captain has more of an axe to grind with him then I do" he said to her "And by the looks of the rest of the crew, I'd say that would apply to them as well"

"Slimovitz is a con-artist and one of the worst slave-traders to ever sail these waters" Randy continued on, his voice becoming agitated as he did at the thought of the man "the slaves he takes from Africa are in poor heath and most don't make the journey across the sea. We've raided many of his ships and each time we have we found only horror and death in the lower decks of those ships"

"But I've met Slimovitz before and he seemed like such a kind man" Theresa tried to reason more with herself then the two captains

"Sometimes the devil wears a smile to lull his victims into doing what he wants" Edward said "I don't blame you for trying to defend the man Miss Fowler. After all, you came from same high-society that he did and he fooled you just as he fooled everyone else around him"

Theresa said no more after hearing that, she needed time to process the information that she had just heard. At the same time, Randy resumed his debriefing to his loyal crew about the task at hand.

"Now as you all know Slimovitz has three plantations that he owns and stays at while he's here in the Caribbean, but the bastards so paranoid he only tells his most trusted captains in his fleet as to where he's staying" he told them "So we are going to follow one of his ship's trade routes until we find a ship and force them to tell us which one he's hiding in and then we'll be rid of that snake once and for all!"

The crew of the Tengu—with the exception of Theresa—let out a cheer upon hearing that. Randy then raised a hand to settle them down before speaking again.

"Captain Kenway will be staying here on the Tengu with us until the deed is done" the young captain furthered "I want you all to treat him with the same kind of respect as you do me"

"But who will be in charge of your ship while you're here?" Doug questioned

"I was just about to answer that, Doug!" Kenway said harshly to him, making the boy quickly shut up before explaining "My first-mate will take command of The Jackdaw while I'm here. They'll be joining us and give us cover in case things go south"

"Alright lads you know yours orders—now set sail!" the captain of the Tengu ordered, to thich his crew that out a collective 'aye!' in response

As the crew went about their duties to make the ship ready for sea, Theresa was left standing on the deck alone, still trying to reason everything that she had just heard. She could hardly believe that everything she had just heard. True, she had never really gotten to know Slimovitz, but her farther always prasied the man—even once saying that he was 'the pride of West-Indies', but perhaps there was more to this man then met the eye. Then a chilling thought ran through her mind: What if her farther knew about the actions Slimovtiz was accused of and was either sweeping them under the rug or worse; hand a hand in them.

"_No—my farther is a good man!_" she inwardly shouted at her doubts "_He would never have a hand in such crimes!_"

"Hey Theresa stop standing around and give us a hand with these ropes!" Bucky called out to her

With that, she buried her worries down for a time being and went to work, hoping that would keep her mind off of her doubts.

* * *

Several hours had past and both The Tengu and The Jackdaw had left port and where out at sea once more. In that time, Debbie had stayed in the lower decks of the ship and keeping herself occupied by mopping up the crews quarters. It wasn't that they were dirty; it was more to keep her mind off of what had happened between her and Heidi earlier today. She should've known better when she was asked to spend the night with the redhead, but she forgone her common sense just to be close to her if only for one night.

Ever since that night when she and Captain Cunningham had shared Debbie that one night during her days as a prostitute she had formed an attraction toward the older girl. Heidi was strong and brave and looked death in the eye and snarled at it; it was the type of girl Debbie longed to be and when Randy asked her to join his crew, she got her chance and sailed under the black flag and lived out her dreams to be just as strong a woman as Heidi was and to be closer to her as well.

As she continued to mop, she heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind her upon the wooden floor. At first, Debbie assumed that it was Theresa or Rachel coming to console her, but her surprise it was instead Howard who was standing before her. For a few seconds they said nothing to one another, only staring at one another, studying each other in the silence between them.

"So I understand you had a bit of tiff with Heidi?" Howard said, finally breaking the silence

"And just how do you know about that?" Debbie questioned sharply, glowering at him

"Julian told me that he saw you and her renting a room in the brothel last night" The Tengu's first mate answered "When I saw you out on deck today, I could sense things didn't go well between you two"

"It went well right up until she saw the captain" Debbie said "And by the way, why are you taking to me instead of your sister?"

"Because talking to her is like talking to a wall" the portly boy replied before adding under his breath "or a dragon on some days…"

There was another short silence between them until suddenly Debbie's rage got the best and she threw the mop down on the floor with an irritated growl.

"Why does she have to be so damn impossible?!" she snapped, clenching her fists in anger as she did "I know things between her and the captain went to shit and they haven't gotten better, but why does she have to close me out?! Every time I think I'm getting close to her, she just pushes me away!"

The tears in her tears were flowing down her face at this point.

"I love her Howard…" she wept in anger "I love her so much…"

"My sister's a hard person to love, Debbie" Howard told her "The things she and I had been through before we ended up here left her broken on the inside. It was one of the reasons she and Randy ended their relationship"

It was then that Howard did something that the young pirate didn't expect: he hugged her.

"But if anyone can fix her, its you" he encouraged her softly

Debbie found herself hugging the first-mate back and after a few minutes of holding each other in a tight embrace, they parted.

"Thank you Howard" she said before kissing him on the cheek "You're a great friend"

Debbie then picked up the mop and left Howard standing their, holding the cheek she had kissed.

"Yeah…a friend…" he said to himself in a dejected tone

Howard then headed back up to the top deck of the ship, keeping from Debbie that there already a Weinerman who cared for her deeply.

* * *

The wind had an eerie feeling as it slowly swept over the torn sails of the schooner-class ship The Angel. The crew were on their way to the plantation were their boss Irving Silmovitz was waiting for them to drop off their cargo of sugar and tobacco, but the ship's crew ran into some nasty weather the previous night and lost most of their supplies during the storm and their main was damaged, now they where running low on food and water with no chance of being able to sail properly.

After nearly two days of pressing on to the plantation, The Angel came across what looked like a derelict frigate drifted along the seas currents. The ship's sails were old and torn with its hull was rotten and covered in barnacles, indicating that the ship had been adrift for months if not years. Upon the top of the main sail stood a black flag, meaning it was once under the command of pirates. Despite the poor conditions the frigate was in, The Angel's captain ordered a small boarding party to go to the abounded ship via row boat and salvage something to at least fix the main sail.

That was four hours ago.

"Sir, I recommend we leave at once!" the first-mate advised "There could be a plague upon that ship!"

"I'm not leaving without my men!" the captain shot back "If they do not return within the next hour, we will go board and find them ourselves"

The captain then looked out to the frigate once more through his spyglass in an attempt to see any of his crewmen, but still saw not a single soul aboard the ship. Just then, the wind swept over the frigate's pirate flag that caused it flow outward and reveal itself, showing the captain its image upon the cloth and while he didn't understand what he was looking at, he still felt a chill crawl up his spine at the flag's image.

It was an image of a triangle-shaped man.


	8. Templar Hunt part 2

Chapter Eight: Templar Hunt part 2

Nine days.

That's how long the pirates had been searching for one of Slimovitz's ships and so far the crew of the Tengu had not come across a trace of a single ship during their time at sea. Some of the young pirates were beginning to wonder if their captain had made a poor choice of going on the hunt for their enemy's vessels, thinking that the merchant may have changed their routes out of fear of being raided, but Randy assured his crew that they were on the right path.

In that time, Theresa had been her honing her skills with a sword with the help of both her fellow crewmembers and Captain Kenway, slowly becoming a master of the blade. The admiral's daughter had even become accustomed to sight of blood during her training sessions—weather it be from her own cuts or from the cuts she gave to her sparring partners. Even how she spoke was starting to change; her proper speech she grew up on occasionally gave her way to saying a swear sword or two whenever she hurt herself either her swordplay or a task she was given a job to do on the ship.

Currently, the captive turned pirate was busy practicing her blade thrusts in the lower parts of the ship while everyone was topside were still doing their chores, she had finished her daily tasks quickly in order to get back to her sword. Despite all of her practice with her blade, she still feared the day when she would have to use it to take another man's life like she did not to long ago.

Just then, she heard the kaw of Randy's raven before seeing it fly into the room and perch itself on one of the posts that held up her hammock. She walked over to the black-feathered bird and began to stroke the top of its head.

"Hello again pretty bird" she greeted sweetly

"He really seems to like you, you know" came the Captain's voice from behind her

The pirate in training spun around to see Randy standing before her with a kind look on his face, clearly amused by the sight of the girl's solo sword training.

"You need to stop sneaking up on people like that, captain" the admiral's daughter replied "Preferably me"

"Duly noted Miss Fowler" Randy answered with a small joke before looking at the sword in her hands "Practicing with you sword again, I see?"

"Yes, I think I'm getting better at it if I do say so myself" Theresa said confidently

"Oh, is that so?" the young captain inquired with a smirk and a raised eyebrow before drawing his cutlass "Then show me"

At first, Theresa assumed that Randy was joking, but the look of determination in the pirate's eyes silently showed her that he was serious on dueling her. With a nod in response, she held her sword in front of her and readied herself for her surprise sparring match. She suddenly rushed toward her opponent and swung her blade at his left, only from him to causally sidestep her attack strike her in the back with his elbow, making her lose balance. She quickly recovered and attempted another strike at the captain, who effortlessly blocked her attack with his own sword in his hand and pushed her back in the process.

Theresa regained her footing while her opponent gave her a sly 'come a get me' grin to frustrate her. His mocking worked as the young woman lunged at him once more with a battle cry. With one good swing of his cutlass, Randy knocked his captive's sword out of her hands before stepping behind her a giving her a quick pop on her bottom with the side of his sword as she went to quickly pick it up off of the ground.

A wave of embarrassment and angry washed over Theresa after being on the receiving end of the young captain's spank. She whirled around with a raised hand ready to smack that grin off of the boy's face, however her intended slap was cut short when the pirate reach out and took hold her wrist before it could touch his face.

"Anger can be your downfall in a fight" he firmly informed her as he released her wrist "No amount of training will be useful if you allow your rage to cloud your judgment"

"I think that lesson could've been taught without spanking me like a child, captain" she replied sharply

"Perhaps, but I wanted to get my point across" the pirate retorted before his tone became lighter "I just don't want to see you hurt in a real fight, or worse"

Theresa stifled a blush at the captain's words, despite being still a bit mad for his stunt; she could understand why he did it. just in his voice alone, she could tell that he did care for her like a member of his crew—though in the mind of the admiral's daughter—she wanted to be a bit more with him then just a fellow shipmate.

Just then, the sound of boots down the stairs to the ship's lower levels broke her train of thoughts as Captain Kenway stepped into the room and judging by the look on his face, he had found something he didn't want to see.

"Is something wrong, Kenway?" Randy inquired

"Your gonna want to take a look at this, mate" as all the captain of the Jackdaw said in grim voice

* * *

Once Randy and Theresa had followed Edward out onto the top deck to see several of the Tengu's crew looking out to the sea. Some of the shipmates had a look of worry and fright on their faces, as if they had seen something that had shaken these fierce pirates to their very core. The usually cool ocean breeze felt almost unnaturally cold as it touched the girl's skin, making her shiver upon contact with it. Off in the distant, she could see what everyone had their attention on at the moment.

It was a small schooner class ship; more then likely one of Slimovitz's merchant ships, but it remained anchored in its place despite the fact they where only a few kilometers from two pirate ships, although it was clear from where they were standing that the schooner's main sails where torn to shreds and barley clinging to mast. Randy took out his spyglass and began to inspect the damaged vessel more closely in order to see if was any signs of life aboard it.

"Well, it looks empty from here" he said to his crew "But something doesn't feel right"

"You think it's a trap?" Edward asked

"No, but something feels…wrong about all this" Randy replied before looking over to his first-mate "Howard, get a few of the boys together and one of the paddleboats ready, where going over there to check it out"

"Aye captain" his first-mate acknowledged

"Wait, your not actuality thinking of going over there, are you?" Theresa questioned "You have no idea what's over there!"

"We need to find Slimovitz, Theresa" her captain answered "And this may be our only chance to find him"

Randy then looked over to Heidi, who was currently leaning up against the mast and looking out to the damaged ship.

"Heidi, you're in charge until we return" he informed the girl

"Just gonna skip over me, huh?" Kenway mentioned

"No offense Edward, but your just a guest on my ship" Randy answered "you should take this time to go back to your ship and give them a few updates on what's going on"

"Fair enough" the captain of the Jackdaw agreed

As the pirates went about their business to prepare for an away party to investigate the seemingly abandoned schooner, Theresa still had her doubts about the whole plan. As Randy headed back to his quarters to gather his weapons, she ran up besides and attempted to change his mind.

"You can't be seriously about all this!" she said "what if this is all one big trap and your all captured or worse!"

"It's a risk we have to take" Randy reasoned "Besides; something tells me we won't have any resistance when we board that ship"

As he opened the door to his quarters, he stopped for a moment to look back at the pirate in training.

"You know it's funny…" he started "You're more worried about me then those poor bastards on that schooner. I think you're becoming accustomed to being a pirate"

Randy entered his quarters upon saying that, leaving Theresa feeling both surprised and confused at herself. The sane thing to do was sneak off this boat on a raft and take her chances on the schooner and try to find a way home to her farther. But yet here she was, more worried about her captor's safety then her own fellow countrymen's well being. Had living among the band of thieves affected her judgment? Or did she truly care for the pirate captain? Not wanting to answer that question right away, she decided to bury her thoughts and find something else to do aboard the Tengu. The pirate descended back down to the lower decks to get to her training, as well as stay out of Heidi's way while she was in command.

* * *

In under a half-hour, Howard had managed to get a paddle boat ready for departure as well as a small boarding party that consisted of himself, Bucky, Doug and Dave. Alongside their captain, the group of pirates made their way toward the seemingly deserted schooner. While Randy had no fear in his heart, the same could not be said for the rest of his crewmembers, who were feeling the dread well up inside as they got closer to the ship. The unnatural cold wind blew in again as they drew closer to the schooner, making everyone aside Randy shiver. Once they where alongside it, the left the paddleboat and began to board the ship. Howard was the first to board and the second he stepped onto the deck of the schooner; he went pale as a ghost.

"Where's the crew?" Randy asked as he looked at his first mate

"All over the place…" he replied in total horror

It was then that the boarding party of pirates saw what he had meant by those words and let out a collective gasp of terror at the sight before them. The deck looked more like a slaughterhouse then it did a ship. Bodies of the ship's crew where strewn about the vessel in a mangled mass of gore—most with missing, arms, legs and even heads. The sighs of a battle where all over the area, from muskets to broken swords, but what was truly perplexing was that while there where bodies of the schooner's crew, there was not a single trace of their attackers to be seen.

"W-What happen here?" Bucky stammered out

"I don't know" Randy replied as he drew his sword "Spread out. There might be some survivors"

With weapons drawn the young pirates began their search for any living soul, but only found more blood and carnage as they descended further into lower decks of the ship. Along the hull of the ship, the crew noticed something out of the ordinary.

"Are those…claw marks?" Dave questioned "You think they had some kind of animal was aboard?"

"If they did we would've found it or its body by now" Howard pointed out "No, this is something else. Something...evil"

As they walked through the lowers decks, Bucky spotted something covered in blood that was lodged in the shoulder of one of the dead crewman. He tentatively pulled it out and carefully examined it after he wiped he had wiped the blood away, however the object he was now realized that he was holding both confused and disturbed him to his core.

"Uh, captain—you better come look at this" he yelped to his leader

The Tengu's captain walked over to where Bucky was standing and took the object from his hand as everyone gathered around him to look at it as well.

"It's a—"Dave attempted to say

"Shark's tooth" Randy finished, stunned by what he was holding

He looked by the bodies they where surrounded and made a chilling realization as to how the crew of the merchant ship had died.

"These men weren't just killed…" he said slowly "They were eaten!"

"What kind of person could do this?!" his first-mate demanded in shock

"Who said it was human?" his leader countered as he dropped the tooth

Now the crews of the Tengu were truly frightened.

"This sounds a lot like a story I heard in Nassau a few days ago" Doug mentioned "A bunch of cannibal pirates who—"

"No one asked for you're opinion, Doug!" Howard snapped

"We should leave this place! This is a cursed ship!" Bucky nearly cried out in fear

"Not until we get some answers, Bucky" Randy argued "We need to find out where Slimovitz is and we may not get another chance to do that"

"But how are we gonna find any answers out here?" his heavy-set friend question "In case you haven't noticed Cunningham—everyone's dead!"

Randy glanced down at one of the corpses, an idea sparking in his mind as he did.

"I'm gonna have a few words with our crewman here" he informed his shipmates

Howard and the others knew what he meant by that and instantly were against what he was about to do.

"You can't do—_that_ to these people, Randy!" the ginger argued "Besides; you know what might happen if you use the Tengu's power"

"I know Howard, but I have to do this" he answered in solemn tone "You all know what to do if things go bad"

The pirates gave a nod in unison of understanding before taking a few steps back from their captain. Randy then inhaled and exhaled deeply as he crouched down to the body, readying himself what he was about to do. Channeling on the demonic power of the Tengu that dwelled within himself, he forced the darkness inside of him to travel into his right hand. He grunted in pain as his fingernails stretched and sharpened until they looked like the talons of a bird, turning red as they did. With one good thrust of his new claws, he plunged his talons into the dead crewman chest.

The dead man's eyes shot open as he gasped for air. His quickly looked around the room in fear, as if he was searching for the ones who had slain him.

"What happen?! Where are they?!" he demanded in a panic "How am I still alive?!"

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but your dead" Randy informed him

"Dead? But that's impossible, I'm talking to you!" the corpse argued

"Only because I brought you back for a short time" the pirate explained "But I can't keep you in limbo for long. So I need to ask you a question before I let you go"

"And if I refuse?" the crewman asked

Randy's answer came in the form of a twist of his talons in the man's chest, making him cry out in pain as he did. A wicked smile spread over Randy's lips while black veins began to twist and bulge up his arm like an evil weed. His eyes started to turn pitch-black as his iris's changed into blood red as the darkness inside him grew stronger. Randy's crew readied their weapons, preparing for the worst—or at least that's what they told themselves.

"Do I have your attention now?!" the young captain snarled with a psychotic laugh "Because trust me—I haven't even started yet!"

"Ahhh! Stop! Stop! I'll talk!" the corpse begged in agony as the pain racked his undead body "Want do you want to know?!"

"Where was this ship headed?" Randy questioned harshly

"I-it was headed to Cat Island!" the undead man choked out

"_**Why?!**_" the pirate roared in an inhuman voice

"I-I don't know! I swear to god!" the crewman answered in fear

Before the dead man could say another word, Randy yanked his talons out of his chest, sending him back to the afterlife in doing so. He stumbled backwards as his corrupted arm tried to claw at his face, only to be stopped by his still human hand. He let out a monstrous bird-like screech that turn into a human yell as his body returned to normal, showing that he had beaten back the Tengu—for now. His crew kept their weapons aimed at him, in case this was some ruse made up by the evil being inside of him.

"I…I'm ok…" he gasped weakly "I'm ok…"

"How can we be sure it's the captain?" Doug questioned

"Howard, if Doug says something stupid like that again. Shoot him" his captain ordered

"Yep, that's our captain" Howard informed his friends

The first-mate then went over to his friend and put his weakened captain against his shoulder and helped him walk back to the ship with the rest of the boys following behind them. A part of Randy wanted to know what exactly what had transpired aboard this blood-stained ship, but not only did he know that he couldn't risk unleashing the Tengu's power; he also thought it best not to know what could slaughter—and devour—entire crew of men and leave no trace of their presence behind.

* * *

There was a silence among the boarding party as they returned to their ship. Randy kept his eyes locked on the water as his mind was racked with guilt and anger toward himself. Once they returned to the Tengu, the rest of the aboard the pirate ship quickly rushed over to the boarding party.

"So what did you find?" Heidi asked

"Heidi, plot a course for Cat Island" her leader solemnly ordered, ignoring her question "Inform Captain Kenway of our new destination when he returns to the ship"

"But why—"

"Now Heidi!" Randy snapped

With that, he made his way back to his quarters, slamming the door behind him as he stepped inside.

"What happened over there, Howard?" the girl questioned

"Evil…" was all her brother could say "Evil happened…"

Heidi knew exactly what her brother had meant when he said that. Not wanting to press the matter further, she ordered the crew to set a course for Cat Island, inwardly glad that they where getting away from the schooner as soon as possible. Another wickedly cold gust of wind whipped the Tengu's deck, feeling the sinister breeze right down to her bones. Heidi then noticed something off in the distant; a giant cloud of mist was forming off on the horizon. They sooner they set sail, the sooner they could keep from being forced to sail through that ghastly fog, however, she couldn't help but feel as though their was something in the fog that she would rather not meet.

* * *

Deep within the dense fog, something or better put someone was indeed looking back at the Tengu. With a spyglass in hand, a seemingly young boy dressed it a black coat and three-pointed hat observed the two pirate ships with great interest—and an even greater hunger. He licked his lips at the thought of consuming more fresh meat as droplet of saliva dripped down from his razor-sharp teeth.

"Are we going to attack, captain?" a tall heavy-set man inquired

"No, not yet, Soos" the boy replied causally "I'd like to know what I'm up against before I eat it"

He then looked down to the rest of his damned crew, who anxiously waited his orders.

"Tambry" he began as he locked eyes with one of his crewmembers "Follow them"

With a nod in acknowledgment, the dark-skinned girl leapt off of the ship and dove into the ocean blew. What rose up out of the water, however, was not a girl at all, but a shark fin that cut through the water around it as it headed in the direction of the pirate ships.


End file.
